East Kong Yick Building

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The East Kong Yick Building is one of two buildings erected in Seattle, Washington's Chinatown-International District ("the ID") by the Kong Yick Investment Co. (the other being the West Kong Yick Building). A four-story hotel in the core of the ID, with retail stores at ground level, the East Kong Yick was created by the pooled resources of 170 Chinese American pioneers. Largely unoccupied in recent years, it reopened its doors as the home of the expanded Wing Luke Asian Museum.^[1]

1 Kong Yick Investment Co.
2 Wa Chong
3 Freeman Hotel
4 Family associations
5 Family apartments
6 Preserving the immigrant experience
7 Notes

[edit] Kong Yick Investment Co.

In 1910 Goon Dip, a prominent businessman in Seattle's Chinese American community,^[2] led a group of Chinese American pioneers to form the Kong Yick Investment Company. With no financial backing from a bank, the investment company pooled money from approximately 170 Chinese American community members to fund the construction of two twin buildings that would serve as the anchor of a "new" Chinatown.

Members of the investment company lived not only in Seattle but throughout the Pacific Northwest, truly making the Kong Yick Buildings a landmark for the Chinese community.

[edit] Wa Chong

Chin Chun Hock was the first Chinese to arrive in Seattle in 1860. With partner Woo Gen, he established the Wa Chong Company (華昌, "Chinese Prosperity") in 1868, considered the leading business and center of "old" Chinatown in Pioneer Square. The company recruited labor from Asian countries as well as imported and exported goods from and to East Asia. When Chinatown relocated to its current location, Wa Chong opened in the new East Kong Yick Building.

[edit] Freeman Hotel

In addition to the blooming Chinese population, Japanese and Filipino laborers began migrating to Seattle in search of work. They found the most affordable and convenient places to stay in Chinatown single-occupancy hotels. The top two floors of the East Kong Yick Building comprised the Freeman Hotel, which was home to many of these workers from the canneries, lumber mills, construction sites, farms, restaurants and hand laundries.

[edit] Family associations

Distinct balconies with elaborate decorations adorned with Chinese characters may be found on the north side of the East Kong Yick. While some of the balconies in the ID mark business fraternities, others signify a certain family association. These are community organizations based on family surnames that are derived from one's family's "home" village in China. The Kong Yick as well as other buildings in the area served as community centers for these family associations.

Family associations were the first social "community centers" in Chinatown/ID. The associations were not just social organizations but also provided social services, helping new immigrants adjust to their new lives in America. Many would turn to these family associations to find work, health care and a place to live.

By the late 1930, "Chinatown" was established as a neighborhood. Around the same time, the Kuo Min Tang (Nationalist Party) had firmly planted itself as the new government in China, replacing 2,000 years of imperial rule. Many Chinese in America at the time showed support for the new regime with flags and various paraphernalia. Evidence of support by Chinese in Seattle can be seen through the flags found in family associations and businesses such as the Wah Young Company, and portraits of Sun Yat Sen, who had visited Seattle and stopped at the newly completed Kong Yick Buildings in 1911.

[edit] Family apartments

Apartments along Canton Alley, located between the two Kong Yick Buildings, became home to many of the first families in Chinatown. While Chinatown alleyways have been stigmatized as mysterious and dangerous places, families have called them home, with many current and former Chinatown residents recalling childhood memories of playing in the alleyways. Some of the apartment units remained occupied until 2005.

[edit] Preserving the immigrant experience

The East Kong Yick Building will be converted into the new, expanded home of the Wing Luke Asian Museum. Historic apartments, stores and social clubs will be preserved and restored as lasting testament to the courage and pioneering spirit of pre-WWII laborers. Restored spaces in the new museum will document and share the experience of the thousands of refugees and new immigrants who have settled in the United States in the past half century.

Seattle's Chinatown-International District is the only place in the continental United States where Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Vietnamese and other settled together and built one neighborhood. By settling in the East Kong Yick, the Wing Luke Asian Museum hopes to help spur the preservation of other historic buildings and bring thousands of visitors to support the many neighboring shops and restaurants.